ATE – Answers provided by NK Chari, director, worldwide marketing & support, measurement systems division, Agilent Technologies

EONEWS: What are your opinions regarding the major trends for this market (slowing, growing, booming…)?

CHARI: Overall the key driver for ATE test systems like In-Circuit Test (ICT) and Functional test systems are driving the electronics manufacturing industry. We expect that the industry will continue to be stable and grow, driven by many new areas that are being invested by companies. These include tablets, increased automotive electronics, servers for cloud computing and overall, new digital technology in the consumer world. We believe the market will continue to grow and manufacturing will continue to be robust.

On a particular note with notebooks, tablets and network devices, we see an emerging trend of increased embedded testing. Over the long term, in 10-15 years, this will be a reasonably robust market and customers will need to balance their manufacturing needs on a global scale. From a test standpoint, we expect more different test methodologies to be put in place that can test more efficiently while finding new ways to improve test coverage.

The automotive electronics market is investing on new technologies, especially areas of adaptive driver assistance systems and HEV/EV technologies. This can have increasing complexity for test systems.

EONEWS: What are the key strategies adopted by your company in the short/medium period to address (or to better address) the needs of the market?

CHARI: From a test standpoint, these industry demands should lead to increased needs for testing as more complex devices come into the market. As manufacturers try to compete on cost and quality, we expect more efficiency and processes in manufacturing to be deployed by our customers. This will drive more automation as part of their test strategy and regional manufacturing strategies.

To enable customers to improve manufacturing efficiency, Agilent has introduced two new inline in-circuit test platforms – the i3070 Series 5i inline ICT and the i1000D small footprint ICT, both of which are fully compliant with SMEMA specifications for complete line automation, and which offer the high performance capabilities that users have come to expect.

The Agilent x1149 boundary scan analyzer fully compliant to the IEEE 1149.1 Boundary Scan standard, the x1149 is able to provide test coverage for much of a PCBA with boundary scan devices

On another note, we are aware manufacturers need a solution that is not only flexible, but re-usable – meaning the same equipment and test strategy can be deployed right from the design validation and prototype phases through mass manufacturing. This capability is one of the key drivers behind launching our new Agilent x1149 boundary scan analyzer. This is a powerful and versatile bench-top box designed to help board test engineers through board design and validation, and re-using the same x1149 test in manufacturing.

In line with providing flexible and reusable tools, we also launched the i1000D diagnostics test set. It can be implemented for in-circuit testing at the design and validation stage without the need to develop fixtures. This will help developers save a lot of money.
Similarly we have our new PXI-based functional test system which can help customers with new levels of flexibility to test Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and other emerging automotive technologies. These systems can be used from design validation to production testing.

On the business front, we are continuing to have investments in global sales and support organizations to help customers transition on regionally and globally.

EONEWS: What are you doing in order to implement your strategies (partnership/agreements, new acquisitions, investments in activities like R&D, people…)?

CHARI: Our focus is on technology innovation with new test systems which can help customers manage through their test challenges. We are continuing our investments on automation, flexibility in test and new test methods. We are continually partnering with industry leaders and market makers to create new technologies. We have already geared up to meet the industry challenges with our new test systems which will further evolve to extend customer applications.

EONEWS: What are the most important application?

CHARI: The most critical aspect of validating electrical integrity in PCBAs is using in-circuit test (ICT). ICT is the most commonly used technology in electronics manufacturing test. A test fixture is required to access the test pads. Agilent’s ICT solution has a comprehensive toolbox which includes component tests for all component types, boundary scan, programming, LED testing, as well as analog and digital functional testing. It has the fastest test throughput to identify opens and shorts with actionable diagnostics reports for defects.

In addition, there is boundary scan. Boundary scan test is a subset of in-circuit test technology where an industry standard has been created to test digital chips and interconnects. One of the key requirements is for the digital ICs to have 1149.1/1149.6 standards implemented in their design to take advantage of this technology. The system is available as part of an ICT system, or independently, such as the Agilent x1149 boundary scan analyzer, which engineers can use to perform structural tests such as opens and shorts tests on their PCBAs. It also performs In-System Programming for devices such as FPGAs and CPLDs.

Another important aspect is the application of functional test. This is mainly to validate the performance of the product. In some cases, it is also used to find performance related defects that escape ICT and imaging inspection like optical inspection and x-ray, which tend to have higher false calls than ICT. A recent industry trend is to incorporate built-in self test to functionally find defects within the PCBA.

EONEWS: What are the key factors that set your company apart from the competition?

CHARI: Agilent’s core strength is our focus on innovative technology, coupled with another vital asset – our dedicated team of engineers who have the technical expertise to help customers meet their real-time manufacturing test challenges. We have over three decades of in-circuit test knowledge and continue to drive efforts to create new solutions and add value for our end-users as customer needs evolve.

EONEWS: And in the middle/long term (if you have a crystal ball!)?

CHARI: Helping customers find defects in manufacturing and enabling high quality products using test technologies are key focal points for Agilent. This industry will continue to evolve with more integration of new test methods, especially with embedded test into current test methods like In-Circuit test and Functional test.

The italian version on EONews 566-Jul/Aug 2013

Edited by the editorial staff

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